The U.S. Air Force has received serious interest from international F- 16 users to buy the High Speed Anti-Radiation Missile Targeting System (HTS), which allows users to cue their HARM missiles more accurately for the suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD).
Tracor Inc.'s board of directors unanimously approved the tender offer by the North American Group of GEC-Marconi, which commenced the offer at $40 in cash per share for all the shares of Tracor Inc., Tracor announced Monday. The subsidiary of General Electric Co. plc announced plans to acquire the Austin, Tex.-based company last week (DAILY, April 22). The initial expiration date for the tender offer is May 22. Morgan Stanley&Co. Inc. is the Dealer Manager, and Georgeson&Co. is the Information Agent for the tender offer.
The Dept. of Justice filed a motion in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Monday to block a request from Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman to compel the disclosure of internal government documents related to Dept. of Defense analysis of the proposed merger of the companies.
Lucas Aerospace, Aurora, Ohio, won a contract from Lockheed Martin Vought Systems, Dallas, to supply the Control Actuation Set for the Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3) missile, Lucas announced. Supporting long lead time items for the initial low rate production, Lucas will supply Aerodynamic Maneuvering System Actuation consisting of control electronics and four actuators. The value of the contract was not disclosed.
House and Senate negotiators met yesterday and failed to settle the contentious issue of whether offsetting cuts will be needed to pay for the $1.7 billion defense portion of the defense and disaster supplemental bill, congressional sources said. Sources said House Majority Leader Rep. Richard Armey (R-Tex.) is insisting on offsetting cuts so the supplemental would not add to overall fiscal 1998 spending. Negotiators will meet again today.
CORRECTION: Northrop Grumman has selected British Aerospace Systems and Equipment to supply inertial measurement systems for the Longbow missile system that will be on the British Army's WAH-64 Apache Attack Helicopter. The DAILY incorrectly reported in the April 27 issue that British Aerospace had selected Northrop Grumman for the work.
The U.K. Ministry of Defense will form a new Defense Aviation Repair Agency (DARA), Dr. John Reid, armed forces minister, announced Thursday. The agency will bring together the current fixed-wing and helicopter repair agencies, including the RAF Maintenance Group Defense Agency based at St. Athan and Sealand and the Naval Aircraft Repair Organization Defense Agency based at Fleetlands and Almondbank. The agency will become operational April 1, 1999. The transfer of Trading Fund status is expected to take two years from the formation of the agency.
The U.S. Air Force last week completed the first drop of a Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser (WCMD) from a B-52H and is now getting ready to resume development testing interrupted after problems surfaced last year. The B-52 test took place at Edwards AFB, Calif., with early indication that the test was successful, Col. Bill Wise, the AF's program director for area weapons, said during an interview here Friday.
Several large acquisition programs have deferred long-term support decisions because of uncertainty and unresolved issues related to the Defense Dept.'s policy guidance; core capabilities that must be kept in public depots, and DOD's belief there may be changes in depot workload allocation, a General Accounting Office draft report on depot maintenance has noted.
The Common Aero Vehicle that is intended to be fired from a military space plane or from the continental United States is in flux after the AF was unable to secure funds to launch a development effort. Some AF officials were hoping to begin the CAV program as an Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration, but the only funded activity is a requirements definition study that should conclude this summer, according to Lynda Davila, the AF's new CAV program manager.
Acquisitions in 1997 helped Raytheon Co., Lexington, Mass., post record sales and earnings in the first quarter of 1998, the company announced Thursday. Raytheon earned $214.9 million in the first three months of 1998 on sales of $4.6 billion. Earnings were up 17% from 1997's $183.4 million, while sales were 58% higher than the $2.9 billion recorded last year.
Ukraine's Council of National Defense and Security last week decided to scrap all of the Tu-160 and Tu-95MS bombers which Ukraine inherited from the Soviet Union, after failing to sell them to Russia. Four years of negotiations failed to bring agreement on the price of 19 Tu-160 and 25 Tu-95MS strategic bombers. Ukraine, which initially demanded as much as $300 million per bomber, later lowered its price to $800 million for the whole stockpile. Russia offered $75 million, which Ukraine treated as a joke.
The U.S. Air Force will spend the next year putting together a list of potential upgrades to the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), but they won't be actively pursued until the AF has fielded some of the stealthy cruise missiles. "Our plan is to develop over the next year or so potential upgrades that can be presented" to the warfighter, AF's JASSM program director Terry Little said in an interview Friday. However, "we would not start serious activity until at least low rate production or full rate production," he added.
Boeing has launched what it hopes will be a lucrative push into the commercial satellite market based on its Rockwell acquisition's Global Positioning System program, and is already marketing satellite buses for communications that will be built at its upgraded GPS facility in Seal Beach, Calif.
Scheduled launches of a Long March 2 rocket in China today and a Delta II from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., next week will complete the Iridium constellation - 66 satellites plus spares - in one year's time, keeping the low Earth orbit communications network on target for a Sept. 23 startup, Iridium CEO Edward Staiano said yesterday. "We're in no rush with the Delta launch," Staiano told reporters in Washington. "It could come anytime in the next 60 days and not affect commercial service."
U.S. Army budget drills raising questions about future funding for the Suite of Integrated Radio Frequency Countermeasures (SIRFC) could undermine the core of the Air Force Special Operations Command's CV-22 tiltrotor.
General Electric Corp., Cincinnati, Ohio, was awarded on April 22, a $12,338,192 fixed-price contract to provide for 170 low-pressure turbine nozzles applicable to the F101 engine on the F-15 aircraft. There was one firm solicited and one proposal received. Solicitation began December 1997; negotiations were completed March 1998. The work is expected to be completed April 2001. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center is the contracting activity (F34601-97/F-0002, 0179).
EG&G Washington Analytical Services Center, Dahlgren, Va., is being awarded a $18,957,315 cost-plus-fixed-fee term contract for advanced networking concepts and computer systems aboard Naval ships. Work will be performed in Dahlgren, Va., and is expected to be completed by April 2003. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured with 48 proposals solicited and one offer received. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division, Dahlgren, Va., is the contracting activity (N00178-98-C-3007).
Caterpillar Inc., Defense&Federal Products, Mossville, Ill., is being awarded a $31,000,000 firm-fixed-price requirements contract for Vibratory Rollers, Types I, II, and III, initially an estimated 30 unmilitarized commercial rollers. Also included are unique tools, initial support kits and support data. Work will be performed in Minneapolis, Minn. (98%), and Hope Mills, N.C. (2%), and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2003. Of the total contract funds, $9,100,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There were 20 bids solicited on Nov.
The Commercial Remote Sensing Program at NASA's Stennis Space Center, Miss., demonstrated the benefit of using remote sensing in planning a new highway route for the Mississippi Dept. of Transportation, NASA reported. The highway, which will connect Hernando, Miss., and Collerville, Tenn., is still being planned, NASA said. But, with the use of remote sensing that planning time can be cut, it added. Remote sensing provides images to make detailed maps of selected study areas that can be used to enhance the quality of the new highway, NASA noted.
Lockheed Martin Skunk Works assembly crews here have fitted big cryogenic oxygen tanks into the nose of NASA's X-33 reusable launch vehicle prototype, while workers at nearby Edwards AFB are starting to push the launch pad and other X-33 support structures above the rugged desert floor near a rock outcropping known as Haystack Butte.
The U.S. Air Force's Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Battlelab is launching an initiative to fuse radar and imagery target information on board a Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) aircraft to better identify targets being tracked by the airborne ground surveillance system.
Sverdrup Technology, Tullahoma, Tenn., is being awarded an $11,655,797 face value increase to a cost-plus-award-fee contract to provide for operation, maintenance, and sustaining engineering of launch and spacecraft service systems at Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla. The work will be performed at Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla. The work is expected to be completed September 1998. There were 59 firms solicited and 8 proposals received. Solicitation began September 1997; negotiations were completed April 1998.
